March of last year, 4:30 in the morning we had a red fox calling on our patio right outside our door. Woke me & the missus up, & scared the bejeepers out of the cats, who were crouching on the stair landing growling.

To be fair, if you filmed them every hour of every day you'd see them killing all kinds of things which wouldn't be great.

But if you lived in the area and started feeding them dog food, they'd swiftly lose interest in hunting and killing things (which takes work) and be totally on board with eating food just left out for them. In which case they'd just be cute. Though they'd still eat your pet cat, because they're cute, not domesticated.

I spent a few years in the High Arctic. The little rascals can be cute--at certain times of the year. When they start to shed the fur comes off in large patches and you get to see how very skinny they are. You definitely don't want to get close to them since about half of them were rabid where we were. As someone mentioned earlier, they will stalk you from a relatively short distance. Say 20 yards or so. But if someone starts feeding the little bastards they will become a serious threat. They will run right up to you and start snarling right at your feet. If there is only one you can try to kick him and make your escape. If several are circling you have a real problem and had better be caring a hefty walking stick. I recommend a shillelagh appropriately sized.